The Lollapalooza Effect

George Mack in 0.1% of Ideas wrote about the Lollapalooza Effect recently. It’s a concept that investor Charlie Munger coined at a  1995 Harvard speech. This is when you combine multiple manipulative psychological tricks (or tendencies) together in order to change behavior. From Munger’s words: “the combination greatly increases power to change behavior, compared to the power of merely one tendency acting alone.”

Munger, in his speech, was talking about how these multiple tendencies often led to disasters. Mack, on the other hand, focused in on Munger’s AA example; how it has a 50% effective rate of preventing alcholics from regressing. And Mack asked, what are these psychological tricks (or biases) that are being used inside AA to help change said behavior? He lists seven:

• Anonymity - no identity to protect, no shame, open/safe space in which to be vulnerable, and share/confer inner thoughts. This is in contrast to commitment bias where you make your goals public. When you do this, you suck away the power to go raw. You take away your own “safe space” to do the work.
• Environment Change - there’s no alcohol available at an AA meeting. This is similar to what most self-help books talk about for removing temptation from your environment. If you have junk food in the house, you’re going to eat it. If you hang out with and/or hang out at places where your vice is available, you are more likley to partake in it.
• Mimetic Behavior - You’re surrounded by peers who are actively looking to accomplish the same goal you are.
• Momentum - You track each day you haven’t drank and celebrate anniversaries. You create a streak you want to ensure keeps going.
• Video Game Design - The 12 steps are levels in which you can beat mini-bosses. It’s a progress tracker.
• Skinner’s Law - I can’t find Mack’s original email or post, but he uses this law to talk about how AA asks you to do what you’re doing for a higher power (God or otherwise). This is akin to serving a higher purpose, so that you “do the work” not just for yourself, nor your passion/love, but for something greater.
• Identiy Bias - Mack talks about a “sober teacher”, as in the people in AA identify with him? Sorry, again, I can’t find the original post… and it seems like Mack renames biases/mental-models to suit his needs.

Mack also talks about biases/mental-models that work against you.

• As I mentioned above already, committment bias doesn’t work, as you add more psychological weight to your work when it’s public. It becomes social embarassment.
• Boiling Frog Phenomenon - this is when you don’t notice how bad things get when it moves is small degrees. That’s why it’s important to check in and be accountable to someone, or something, or as per above, a “higher power”.

Build a Fiction Writing Habit

So the reason I resonated with and why I wanted to expand on the Lollapalooza Effect here is because I can see this with helping me change my behavior in regards to writing fiction. What are activities to avoid or minimize, what are activities to increase.

Here are some thoughts on that…

• Anonymity - I think this could be my biggest trap as a marketer. I want to promote stuff. That is in my blood to. But I don’t actually have anything to promote. “No problem, as a copywriter I’ve sold empty courses on vague promises.” NO. Just no. I need to avoid putting time into social media and/or promoting “nothing but an identity and ‘online presence’” when I don’t have any work to promote. And even when I do, it has to be minimized. (Or I do NOT care about the engagement numbers.) And related to that…
• Commitment Bias - DO NOT TALK ABOUT WANTING TO WRITE FICTION PUBLICLY. DO NOT POST. DO NOT SHARE. Keep it to a small support group (Garage Fiction). That way it’s a safe space. No judgement. No outside commentary. No need to defend your psychic space. No need to answer to strangers.
• Environment Change - This is obvious. Kill all distractions. No social. No Internet. Have research and prep done. It’s just to write scenes. That’s what my reMarkable is for.
• Momentum - See Jerry Seinfeld’s string of X’s for writing jokes. Keep that calendar of X’s.
• Identity Failure - If I come out and say “I’m an author” too early without any actual work (complete, published, or otherwise)… I am creating potential for shame, pressure, and prevents room for a safe space for inner creative struggle.

Put another way –

• Don’t identity as X publicly
• Don’t declare your goals publicly
• Don’t announce deadlines publicly

BUT HAVE GOALS AND DEADLINES INTERNALLY, held accountable to a small group and trusted parties.

Rules for Outside Communication

I think with those directives in mind, there can be some clear rules for how I can keep minimizing distractions efficiently to “do the work”.

• Support Groups - keep this to a minimal. Garage Fiction is once every six weeks. In-person VGW… same-ish schedule. UPDATE: 12/26/2023 - I got into MRK’s first short story cohort. I’ll be in a critique group for three months. I might just drop VGW and increase the lag time for GFP as well. GFP has value as they’re friends, but running VGW thrice now has not added a lot of value beyond the first time I met Charlie. It’s not my job to keep this going. I volunteered and I have the right to scale back too. Anything that doesn’t help me move forward on actually producing fiction can (and should) be dropped.
• Social Media - Just drop all of it as Jinn. None of this needs to appear on my social media. But what about my other life? It should stick to story analyses and most importantly, writing about THE ACTIVITY, NOT THE IDENTITY. Not goals, not deadlines, not “I want X by Y”. I do not need social pressure from strangers, or even friends who are not writing fiction. I just don’t need pseudo-support. It’s not a safe space… even if people are nice. That’s a revelation as I type this. It’s not a safe space even when people are supportive. It has to be the right kind of support. And maybe that’s why VGW just isn’t working for me.
• Momentum X Deep Work - Gamify this. Use the “Streak of Xs” that Seinfeld uses, but track Deep Work Sessions. Ideation, Research, Prep (Elements/Outline), Drafting.

Adaptation of 12 Steps to Craft Work

Using teachings from Burke’s Four Thousand Weeks, and adapting the 12 Steps of Alcholics Anonymous…

1. Dreams are a Trap. Acknowledge that dreams are “perfect” and untested in your head. It is an escapist fantasy and easy illusion to fall into.
2. You Must Walk Into Chaos. Accept that the Craft means walking into chaos and uncertainty to do the work. Creative work means struggle. When you sit down to do the actual work, it will reveal faults and cracks in the fantasy.
3. The Craft is the Higher Power. Only the work matters. The work to create and produce.
4. Do Deep Work. Respect the Craft by making it sacred. It is deep work. No distractions, no sidebars, no dreaming.
5. Commit to the Craft. Do the Work every day, even if it’s just 20 minutes.
6. Countdown From 4000 Weeks. Recognize you have less than 4000 weeks on this planet.

As I edit this entry on 12/26/2023, I will turn 43 in two weeks. Doing the math, that means I have been on this planet for 2,234 weeks. Using Burke’s 4,000 as a baseline, it means I have 1766 weeks left. Much less, really, if you consider that few authors are still working at a good clip after 70.

Final Thought

What are some other reasons for doing the work? The higher power could be how my stories would affect readers.

1. Escape after a hard day
2. Feel more human - characters to look up to
3. See world differently - social commentary - sugar pills for morals